Eva Lake: The Anonymous Woman
Collage, 2011- 2012
Statement
In another body
of work, Targets, I dealt with famous women. Some suggested that the use of
anonymous women might be an interesting choice. At the time I was determined to
mine a known feminine narrative, especially ones I had a personal interest and
investment
with.
Nonetheless I became aware that I certainly had an investment with beauties
unknown, models and the like. Many come from previous eras, before models were
names. I couldn’t resist collecting their faces, just as I had collected the
famous ones.
After a fifteen year hiatus, during 2009 and 2010, I had also worked as a makeup
artist again. Going into it this time, my whole view of the face was different -
I mean the one I montaged with, not just the one I painted commercially. The
return to a makeup career, such as it was, freed up and reshuffled my idea of
the anonymous beauty. I had also a heightened idea of the face as cut up body
parts, well aware that women’s faces are sliced and diced all the time.
I recall a fellow artist once telling me that beauty was dangerous. I knew this
to be the truth in painting, but I also felt it was the case in many other
things, including women. What I want to do with beauty and glorious artifice is
put her where you least expect her to be. She's often shoved into a box and I
want to bust her out. She’s the ocean, the sky, the forest. She’s the
skyscraper, the Pantheon,
the illuminated manuscript. She's also the wall, the decor, the carpet you step
on.
Eva Lake
2012